Classic wrote:Probably because that's what these things cost when they're not being massively subsidized by starving and overworking the developers.Really want to see them both succeed though.

Mike Z talks about the cost at great length in the video above. I don't think the cost is unjustified. The issue is more than because it's hard to drum up 1.5MM during the crowdfunding phase, whether it'd make more sense to limit scope go episodic, making it easier to hit the initial funding point.

There are 4 days left, and it's looking like Indivisible will be squeaking by its 1.5MM mark, but I really didn't like how white-knuckle of a ride its ability to hit its funding goal felt. (It would have failed without deadline extension.)

Thad wrote:So I think I have a job now. Time to go set my resume on CareerBuilder to private, maybe pledge a couple Kickstarters I've been waiting on.

I wound up pledging the Zappa Kickstarter and also the latest Ditko Kickstarter. I was planning on backing the Rifftrax Kickstarter but I'm not sure I will; they've passed their goal and the rewards aren't really a screamin' deal; the downloads they're offering cost about what they would if I just bought them a la carte off the Rifftrax site. (And if I bought them on sale and chose the SD versions of the live shows, it would actually cost less to buy them off the site.) Plus I'm already in for $13 a ticket if I go see the live shows; I understand that it's logistically impossible for them to offer tickets to the live shows as a Kickstarter, but it's hard for me to get behind funding the shows and then still having to buy tickets to go see them.

The CBLDF has a new Kickstarter for a book called She Changed Comics, which, as its title implies, is about the history of women in comics. It looks great but since it's already funded that's another one I might hold off on and just buy the book when it's out.

Winter's changed the breakdown of the Zappa fundraiser. By popular demand, he's putting all the first million toward preserving the Zappa Vault. He won't put any of the Kickstarter money toward his documentary until and unless it passes $1M.

His reasoning is sound: unless the KS passes $2M (unlikely at this point), he'll still need to seek additional external funding. And he figures that the Kickstarter can attract investor attention anyway, in and of itself, just by showing fan interest, especially if it gets up to $1M and sets the record for biggest crowdfunded documentary project. (Which is possible. It requires money to start ramping up again in the closing days, but that's likely, and if the past couple of days are any indication it may have already started.)

And really, I believe (and most fans seem to agree) that preserving the Vault is the highest priority right now. There's a time limit hanging over it; a lot of that stuff is degrading and could become irretrievable, so the more money put toward it and the sooner it is, the more will be recoverable.

(Of course, there's a time limit hanging over the documentary, too, but it's a little less predictable; it's the lifespans of the people Winter's going to want to interview. That's morbid to say but of course it's true; Frank died young, Gail passed away last year, we lost George Duke back in '13, etc. So I can still see a certain sense of urgency about getting the doc made sooner rather than later, but it's not as immediate as the degradation of film and tape.)

I really should crank out a blog post or three about this thing. I'll probably do that shortly.

(Man, I've always wanted a Zappa for President T-shirt, but $35 is a little steep...)

The Zappa Kickstarter's in its last four days; today was a big jump ($46.5K, compared to $28K yesterday). Unless there's some kind of inexplicable dropoff, tomorrow it'll pass The Bill Nye Film as the #1 documentary Kickstarter of all time (in dollars; it's only got about a third as many backers as Nye).

I think it'll probably hit a million. If the final three days just tied today's amount that'd bring it to $964K.

I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. Winter's been putting out some great content for backers; the most exciting thing so far (IMO) is a recording of Zappa hanging out and chatting with Clapton, followed by the two of them getting out guitars and jamming for awhile.

I pledged at $35. I'm debating whether to up it to $50; I'm ambivalent about the Kickstarter tee (like I said, I'm much more interested in the Zappa for President tee), but if the campaign gets to $1M then every backer $50 and up gets a poncho, and I must admit the thought of a real Zappa poncho is tempting.

I'll probably buy some of the add-on rewards once I get my first full paycheck, too, but that's not until the 22nd. Presumably the add-on store will stay open after the Kickstarter, though; the MST3K add-on store is still open, and the Zappa add-on store is clearly taking its cues from the MST3K one (the FAQ page is even copy-and-pasted from the MST3K one; for awhile there it still said "mst3k.com" in one spot instead of "zappamovie.com", though that's been corrected).

There's some truly fantastic stuff already coming out of this. I'm really looking forward to seeing and hearing more -- and not just in the documentary, but with the years and years' worth of material they'll be restoring with the money they've raised.

Beyond it probably not working as advertised (a plug-in GPU box.... really. *sniggering*), I know fuck all about laptops and even I know that by the time this gets to production newer laptops will have surpassed it in power anyway.

Beyond it probably not working as advertised (a plug-in GPU box.... really. *sniggering*), I know fuck all about laptops and even I know that by the time this gets to production newer laptops will have surpassed it in power anyway.

Unbound has a crowdfunding page for The Tyrant and the Squire (potentially NSFW*), the third in Terry Jones's trilogy of children's books.

I don't see an actual dollar amount listed like on Kickstarter, but it says it's currently 46% funded.

Given the sad news about Jones's health, it'd be a lovely gesture to see the campaign succeed. And given that, from the sound of it, he won't be writing anything anymore, that's reason enough to pursue any unpublished Terry Jones work we can get.

* Top of page shows painting of Terry Jones at piano wearing nothing but a necktie, and if you play the video it pans down to show his buttcrack.

Snyder and Ditko are back on Kickstarter with the fiftieth anniversary of Mr. A. I like the look of the $55 tier, where you get the comic plus $50 worth of other items of your choosing (see available stock at ditko.blogspot.com -- damn, they're out of Static (no, not the Milestone Static)). I've had my eye on Avenging World for awhile now, and I missed a few of his single issues when I was unemployed and did not have Kickstarter money.

I don't know if anybody else is interested in this stuff, but if anybody wants any recommendations for Ditko things to get, I'll do my best to help.

He's raising funds to oppose the Zappa Family Trust's trademark application for the Zappa name.

What a revolting situation. And yeah, it probably won't surprise you to know I'm with Dweezil; the very idea of abusing trademark law to try to prevent a guy from using his own name is madness. Dweezil's clearly in the right here, and has been for the past year this has been going on. The ZFT's relying on classic bully tactics here -- Dweezil's in the right legally but has neither the money nor the inclination to fight them in court, so he's backed off using both the Zappa Plays Zappa mark (which he probably has a legitimate claim to as the only person who's ever actually used it) and the Frank Zappa name (which is descriptive; it is not a trademark violation to say that you are performing the music of Frank Zappa if you are performing the music of Frank Zappa). Now that they're trying to prevent him from using his own name, they've basically forced his hand; he has to fight back now, and he's raising the funds to do it.

Aside from the fundamental rightness of what Dweezil's raising money for, the guy's a great damn guitar player, and I like his original work well enough that I'm happy to spend $15 to get a FLAC download of his latest album.

Though I'm sure hoping this all blows over and he gets to start comercially releasing his covers of his father's work again. I picked up the ZPZ DVD set on eBay recently and it really is fantastic.

I'd like to see him prevail in court and, hopefully, to get a ruling that knocks some sense into his siblings. I think they're basically decent people but I think they've gotten some bad advice from some lawyers who don't have their best interests at heart. And even if I believe the worst of them and that they really are Only In It for the Money, they're not doing a very good job of working in their own financial interest; alienating the only family member who's got the chops to actually go out there and play Frank's music is not a sound moneymaking strategy.